Gemma McCutcheon will captain the Ladies Ulster side for the first time when they take on Munster at Ravenhill this weekend. 
At 24 years old, the former Collegiate student is one of the more experienced players in a youthful side, and her reward for recent impressive performances has been to receive the captain’s armband.
“I really wasn’t expecting it at all,” Gemma admitted. 
“I got a phone call on Friday asking me if I would be up for it. 
“I was a wee bit shocked to be honest but I would be one of the more experienced players now with it being a younger side. 
I had no hesitation in saying yes. I just thought ‘why not?’”
Gemma graduated from the University of Ulster earlier this year before spending the summer in New York.
And she was not long back on the training pitch before the call arrived for her to take up the captaincy.
 However, it is not the first time she will have slipped on a captain armband and she reckons her previous experience will help her when she captains her province on the big stage. 
“I have captained at Queens before and captained at the Collegiate at tag rugby, so I have been through it before although obviously nothing as big as this,” she said. 
“I really think I lead on the pitch and that is what I will continue to do. 
“I want to lead by example on the pitch and hopefully get a few wins under our belt,” added the Ulster player.
Gemma is embarking on her seventh year within the Ulster Rugby set up, having started her rugby education with a trip to Mullaghmeen to Enniskillen Rugby Club when she was in fourth year at the Collegiate. 
“I had played a lot of sports before like football.
“ I had tried everything but I started playing rugby and loved it,” she revealed.
 “There were quite a lot of young players at the time and quite a few of the girls at school were there and they brought me out. 
“There was a really good youth set up and there was a lot of girls doing really well so that got me into it. 
“We did quite well at underage at Mullaghmeen and then I got involved with the Ulster set up at under 18s and went through into the senior squad when I was still 17.”
She made her Ulster senior debut in Galway against Connaught although it has often been tough in the intervening years competing against the might of Munster and Leinster.
However, Gemma is hopeful that alongside fellow Fermanagh players Shirelle Wilson and Katheryn Dane, she can lead a youthful team to a new period of success for Ulster Rugby. 
“We haven’t had the best of runs to be honest, especially with Munster and Leinster being so strong, but in the past few years we have a new coaching set up,” she explained.
 “With the under 18s doing so well we have a lot of young fresh players coming through and there is a lot more depth coming through. 
“We have a lot of big expectations for this season. 
“We are looking forward to it,” she concluded.